montreal

Valentenko is starting to come along in Hamilton, he started out being too physical which was taking him out of position but now he seems to be picking his spots better. He's got a cannon of a shot but doesn't use it much. He's been starting to pick up the points lately, after having only 2 assists in his first 21 games, now he's had 3 pts in the last 3 games. But I wouldn't expect him to ever be known for his offensive skills, as he will be known for his tough physical play. Emelin has had all sorts of drama going on around him in the past year or two. He ended up taking his former team Lada to court after not being paid salaries owed, he signed a contract with AK Bars and it came out he had 2 agents. Now with AK Bars things continue on a strange path. The team struggles in a big way, Emelin sees time mostly on the 3rd pairing, gets cut from the National team for Euro Tour but makes the RSL All Stars. His production has really dropped as he has only 1 pt in 40 games this year when 2 years ago he was the top scoring defensemen on his team with 6 goals and 12 pts and 129 pims in 43 games. He is currently suspended for 4 games, it's his 2nd suspension in the RSL as he was suspended in the playoffs 2 years ago.

He's not really like Higgins in that he has the opposite offensive skills, he's a real impressive passer but his shot needs a good deal of work. In the games I saw he seems to be firing it right at the goalies chest. I haven't really seen him deke like Higginis but I have seen him throw some big hits and he's got impressive strength.

He's looking good so far, looks a lot more confident in the offensive zone. he's on the top line but they moved him to his off wing as he's now used as a LW. I wrote some stuff about him and some other prospects, http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=74

Weber is a lock for the Swiss team Pacioretty imo is a lock for USA it's his last year to play at the U-20's Doubtful Maxwell even gets invited to the camp next month as he's only played 11 games this year and is still injured. White I fully expect him to get an invite to camp, we'll see if he makes the team Not sure if Fischer or McDonagh make the team, Fischer the good news is that he is playing better, don't know if that will be good enough though, McDonagh I hope he makes it, if not he should be a lock next year.

He's out half the season last I heard.

Early on that was the case. I used to write for them a few years back but they are trying to get more people with backgrounds in journalism or that's what they told me, people that write for a living. I don't know the guy that they have covering the Habs at HF but I am impressed that he is able to get quotes from Timmins, I know when I was writing for HF I tried several times to get up with Timmins but wasn't successful, he's a great source to get info from for prospects.

If Emelin is the best defensemen in the RSL, why was he playing on the 2nd pairing all season. Now he was likely the top U-21 defensemen in the RSL this year but I certainly wouldn't agree that he was the top defensemen in the RSL.

I don't see it as work since it's just hockey. It's great fun watching these guys develop and progress over the years especially when they make the jump to the NHL. The problem is the cost which can get out of hand as I don't make any money off this, even my website doesn't have any ads on it although at some point I may get around to putting some ads to help pay for the site. At this point I just enjoy watching lots and lots of hockey every year. Plus it's been cool as I've gotten to see Crosby at 16, Ovechkin at 17, Malkin at 17 playing against Kostitsyn and Zherdev (they were on the 4th line together, Malkin's team crushed them badly) I did cut back this past year as money got a little tight but I got a better job and should be able to see more games this year. What I do is first comes the Habs, so I watch them whenever they are on, then comes the Bulldogs, I'm a huge Dogs fan so I'd watch them over any hockey aside from the Habs. After that I watch whatever habs prospects I can, I see them all play at least once a year usually and then I rate them in order of importance, so guys like Lacasse, Cepek I don't go out of my way to see them but I try and see them at least once and always read up on how they are doing. Being a former writer for HF and being on so many different habs sites for the last 5+ years, I've gotten my name out there, so I get random bits of info all the time in my emails and pm's. The second thing I focus on after the Habs/Dogs/prospects is the draft. I have a system where I try and follow guys for 2 years. So the '07's I started to read/watch them here and there last year and then this year I try and step it up and see more of them as the season goes on. If I've seen a lot of the habs prospects then I'll try and catch more random games that don't have habs prospects playing in it but have guys that I think we might be interested in drafting. This years draft I wasn't all that into to begin with as I felt it wasnt' a great draft plus I didn't want to spend too much money and this is where it gets costly cause I'm already spending well over 300 bucks in just center ice and hamilton season pass plus ncaa (costs me 5 bucks a month to get ncaa games from comcast, it was 12 with directv but they had more games sometimes 5 games on friday nights) So this year I tried watching guys for the '08 draft and this upcoming season I'll focus on the '08 guys but also try and see some '09 guys. I try not to get too caught up with this since the odds are we won't draft the guys I'm watching (although I had us drafting McDonagh and Fischer in my mock draft articles on my site so I got lucky there) I have had some offers, I had a really good contact with ISS when they first started as the head scout is a Habs fan and we had several long conversations over the phone about habs prospects and different things about the draft. But I've lost contact with him in the last year. I've had some other offers to see if I would do some scouting but I didn't want to work for free. For now I will just keep watching as much hockey as I can. I've been doing this for years and don't plan on stopping any time soon.

directv + webcasts + live games (I've seen Hamilton play in 5 or 6 different cities) plus I trade games with others since I'm in the states the tv coverage isn't great. I do get to see a ton of college (I get every Minnesota game or close to it) plus a lot of WCHA. I had to switch to comcast this past year after 5 years of directv which stinks cause directv shows a lot more hockey like U-18's, U-17's (only if USA is playing for a medal though), USHL, ECHL, and AHL. I also buy games from the RSL, I've got games from the FNL (Karpat to see Korpikari) and SEL (Mora only to see Hossa play during the lockout) I've got a ton of RSL games (many Korneev, Perezhogin, a couple Emelin/Grabovski, Markov, plus Buturlin/Tarasov/Kruchinin but no Valentenko in the rsl, only in the remax games. I got to see Emelin play against Markov in the RSL finals game 3, watching Markov's Dynamo win it all in a 2-1 game. So I see a lot of NCAA games, I tape most of Fischers games, I've got Komisarek at Michigan, several Wyman games, some Paquet games, lots of O'Byrne/Gleed games all on vhs. I had a season pass to Cornell so I got to see all their home games on webcast so I've seen O'Byrne likely over 100 times over the years plus I interviewed him and his coaches. Clarkson has free webcasts of their home games and sometimes Dartmouth has free webcasts so I've seen them play several times in the past 2 years for Paquet and 3 years for Wyman. The CHL is much harder to catch. I used to buy games from a guy in toronto for 5 bucks a game US. He would tape OHL games mostly and some other stuff. I've got a couple games of Crosby when he was a rookie with Rimouski. Right now I see several Q games since the Mooseheads and sea Dogs have free webcasts. The last two years I've just bought the webcasts from the WHL and OHL but I've cut down on my budget for spending on hockey so I haven't seen as many games. Lucky we only had Kostitsyn and Lacasse in the OHL this year and I didn't really feel the need to watch Lacasse play. Next year I do plan on catching more OHL games because next summers draft is going to be a huge, huge one for the OHL as they should have many guys picked. I had a season pass to the Bulldogs webcast so I got almost all 80 regular season games for 160 bucks US plus 6 bucks a game for the playoffs (got costly) In the past I would travel to games anywhere from 2-10 hour drives (Hamilton is a good 10 hours from me) but now that B2 shows almost all the games it's a lot easier and cheaper way to see the games. I saw almost every Hamilton game this year and maybe half of their games the year before. I don't watch a lot of ECHL games, I used to trade for games when we had a team in Long Beach as a Ducks fan from HF would tape them for me and trade for Cornell games. Now I just listen to some games on the radio if no other habs prospects are playing. I've only seen 2 USHL games ever and both were good games. I got to see Paul Stastny play in the USHL (think I still have it on tape) and Pacioretty I saw in the All Star game, which I was busy watching several guys like Petrecki, Colby Cohen, Corey Tropp, Aaron Palushaj and Pacioretty. In the last two years I've gotten to see several Minnesota USHS games. FSN started showing games (and they replay them as well as Minnesota games throughout the week) I got to see McDonagh and I know a scout that is good friends with Timmins, so he told me the Habs were interested in McDonagh. I really liked Nick Larson but the caps drafted him. So every year I end up watching a crap load of hockey as I also have nhl center ice, although I'm not a big NHL fan as I usually just watch all the Habs games. In addition I have gotten contacts all over. I know the guys that run russianprospects.com, eliteprospects.com, scouts from McKeens and ISS, as well as fans of junior teams that I know I can trust their opinion, so they keep me up to date on how certain prospects are doing, as it's tough to keep track of 30+ prospects each year. I end up seeing some guys a ton and other guys I see very little. I've only seen Cepek once, Valentenko I've only seen at the remax games and wjc's. I've only see Lacasse a couple times back with Drakkar, I didnt see any Cincinnati games this year but got a lot of good reports from their fan site, very helpful people over there. I don't know when I'll get to see Torp other then some clips I've seen so far. I haven't seen Conboy/Kishel and I am pretty sure I saw Stejskal as I know I saw his team play but I don't recall him at all and I don't seem to have taped any of the games he'd played in (I sold a tape for 10 bucks without seeing that it had some HS games on it as my 2nd vcr broke) I know I'll get to see him at Dartmouth this year though, doubtful I'll see Kishel or Conboy until the go to the NCAA in 2 years.

http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=68 Grabovski and A.Kostitsyn with 8 pts each, S.Kostitsyn with 7 pts. A.Kostitsyn's team is leading the tournament, with his brothers team in 2nd, as the 1st and 2nd place teams go on to round 2 and play a one game final. Grabovski had a hattrick last week, he leads the trio with 4 goals.

That's a bold statement from Timmins, Lats had a solid year for a 19 year old, hopefully he builds off that. Pacioretty I have a hard time thinking he could repeat the same success in the NHL as Lats did since he's about to turn 19 in the fall. But he must think really highly of Pacioretty since we are already seeing what Lats can do and Pacioretty has had a slow development prior to this past year, when he played in the same league as Higgins did when he was with Avalon but didn't really produce all that well. This past year he did put up impressive numbers in the USHL though, although the difference between the two is that Lats has been known to find the back of the net and that's been the knock on Pacoiretty, that he needs to work on his finishing skills. I only saw Pacioretty once, at the USHL all star game and was impressed with his skating/speed for big guy but other then that he wasn't very noticeable. I can't wait to see him at Michigan, I know I'll get to see him early in the season as I get all the Minnesota games and Michigan faces Minnesota on opening weekend.

Ok someone needs to do some research on this kid. How did everyone miss him in the draft? How did the Habs pick him up without any other jumping on him? From first impressions; he looks like a steal. Where were the scouts on this kid? Was he even rated? anyone ? Maybe Dann Linn can tell us where Beauregard would fit in Hamilton. Seems that with Urqhart re-signing, Aubin ready to have a regular spot, Kostitsyn making the jump from the OHL and Russel coming on board there's not that much place left on the AHL roster. Hamilton will likely be crowded next year but it's hard to say since we don't know who will make the jump. Chipchura, Grabovski, Ferland, Milroy, Locke should all be fighting for a spot, not all of them can make the team though, so some players will be back in Hamilton, assuming they clear waivers. Add S.Kostitsyn, and the ECHL guys like Stewart, Aubin and Bonneau plus Russell and there will be a lot of players. Forwards- Grabovski, Chipchura, Locke, Urquhart, Russell, D'Agostini, Manlow, Baines, Ferland, Milroy, S.Kostitsyn, Stewart, Bonneau, Aubin, Beauregard. That's 15 forwards but some of them I expect to make the Habs, so we'll have to see how it goes. Guys like Beauregard and Russell might spend time going back and forth from the AHL and ECHL if the roster is too full, they can go to the ECHL to get ice time.

yes, it says that in the last 2 drafts we have addressed the problem of the lack of D prospects. The only other D prospects we have are Cote, Benoit, O'Byrne and Emelin so we clearly had to draft more D prospects. As for Loverock, I've heard he's a decent goalie but had some trouble in the playoffs. His stats aren't too impressive since the style of play the Ice Dogs have, lots of running and gunning kind of like Oshawa this year. Should be interesting, if he has a good camp or not.

The Habs signed the Q's leading goal scorer Thomas Beauregard to an AHL contract today, he will join his former teammate Mathieu Carle in Hamilton next year. Nice signing by Gainey to get the Q's 2nd leading scorer signed, always worth a shot, if he doesn't make it, not much is lost.

There's more to it then just holding their rights. You also have to compete with the RSL clubs to get them out of Russia. The RSL clubs in some cases can offer there players a lot more money then they used to, when a team goes and signs Alex Perezhogin to a 1.7M deal per year, they clearly have some money to throw around and Salavat isn't one of the richer teams like Ak Bars or Omsk. Plus there seems to be some shady dealings going on in Russia. Look at Malkin, signing a contract at 3 am? Then disappearing only to appear in the US, sounds like the old days. I can see why many nhl teams are scared off of picking any Russians and that's likely just what the Russian Federation wants. I can also see why, image being a fan of a team over there, losing an Ovechkin or a Malkin for nothing, ouch. I don't know what's going to happen but the nhl seems to be digging it's self a hole. They refuse to pay good money and RSL clubs due in part to the huge boon in oil, are much richer then they used to be, creating a situation that down the road is likely going to get worse as the number of Russians being drafted over the last few years has been low. Things could turn out great for the rangers but I'd be worried until he's over here. On top of that there's concerns about his game, which imo also has to do with his slide. I like the move we made, we are very, very thin on LD prospects especially if we never see Emelin. Cote and Valentenko are the only LD's we had going into the draft, we left the draft with 3 LD's so at least we addressed the issue. I know people say, you shouldn't draft for needs cause your needs will change in 4-5 years, but when you have only 2 LD prospects, you got to add some depth in case injuries hit.

I can't really say cause I've only seen 2 USHL games, both All star games (not like regular all star games though, these were good, well played games) I saw Pacioretty this year, before that I saw Paul Stastny when he was in the USHL. From what I've seen the USHL is a higher level because of having older more mature players. Whereas the USHS has more younger kids. Actually it's sort of comon for kids from the USHS to go to the USHL before going to the NCAA, aside from the top players, so that they can work on their game or adjust to the physical aspects since the NCAA is mostly 18-24 year olds. I know that the USHL is making big strides and are getting more and more players drafted, so that's a good sign. Balej, Vanek, Stastny are just some of the guys that have played in the NHL from the USHL. I have been paying a lot more attention to the Minnesota USHS cause I get a number of their games on tv. I will try and catch some USHL games next year on webcast to see Conboy and Kishel.

If they extended the rights of Russians this year, I assume they will continue to do so until the Russians sign the PTA, so we would keep Emelin's rights. I guess and it's a total guess is that we will see Emelin in 1 year but that is based off nothing then a feeling from what I've read. I was told that CSKA offered Emelin a 3 year deal and he turned it down, opting to sign a 2 year deal with AK Bars. So why next year? He might have an NHL out clause, or he might not, but there's also the chance that the Habs could buyout his contract with Ak Bars, although they are a rich team and it might be difficult to do so. Russia has yet to change their laws about the 2 week notice, so that helps the Habs as they could use that as leverage if it's not removed from their laws by next summer. (which it could be by then) As the Habs could offer a decent amount of money if Emelin want's to come over cause the risk to AK Bars would be losing him for nothing if they thought he wanted to give his 2 week notice. It's all up in the air at this point and no one really knows what will happen, perhaps we will never see Emelin over here. I was told the reason behind Emelin staying in Russia this year, was that he felt he wasn't ready for the NHL. This could be total crap or bad info, but I suspose he doesn't want to play in the AHL for 62K a year when he's likely making much much more then that in the RSL. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

They would have seen Conboy when watching Pacioretty, since both played in the USHL this year against one another. But the others they likely saw when watching Fischer and McDonagh. During McDonagh's junior year his school CDH won the state tournament, but Fischer's school Apple Valley had a good year and went far in the tournament, McDonagh was the MVP of the tournament. Stejskal's school Grand Rapids was another really good team, they also went far in the state tournament so the Habs likely got a good look at him. I have been following the Minnesota USHS closely for the last 2 years (lucky timing on my part, they just started showing games on my tv) Kishel's team Virgina I never saw play and don't know anything about them, I know that he put up very impressive numbers and he's said to be really good with the puck but needs a lot of work on his game, he'll have 5 years to do so though. He'll be back in the USHL next year but the year after that he will play against Fischer and McDonagh in the WCHA, baring either one leaving school early.

Well I'm not so sure, there's been nothing officially from the NHL and the Sabers were supposed to get the 45th overall pick for not signing their 1st rounder in '00 but they ended up not getting the pick so I have to think that the NHL once again extended the rights of Russian draft picks. But I don't know for certain one way or the other. I chose not to put a profile for Korneev cause I never thought he would come over. Same with Kruchinin and Sidyakin. I also did this with Alex Dulac and Loic Lacasse cause I never thought we would sign them, so I had to go back and make up a profile for Lacasse after to my surprise we signed him. I won't do one for Lahti since he's already 25 just as I chose not to do one for Danis since he's already 25, plus I removed older guys and guys that graduated like Lats.

http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=63

And McDonagh it is! Nice pick, too bad he's going to Wisconsin as he opted to go there over Minnesota, he could have been a teammate of Fischer's.

no problem, I don't mind people expressing problems with articles I write, I've been doing it for years now so I'm used to it. I haven't paid much attention to anything McKeens does but a good contact I have is now one of their top scouts and he has direct contact with Timmins, so I at least listen to what he tells me. I've been told that the Habs likely won't gamble on Espo, that they don't like the skating of Backlund, that they really like McDonagh and Sweatt and also like Shattenkirk. There's no way for me to confirm if this is true or not, but I do trust my contact as he's given me good info over the years. Next week we'll see what happens. The reason why I do this mock draft every year is just for fun to try and guess some guys that the Habs might be interested in for each pick but still on board. It's almost impossible to get picks right so really the article is pointless but I've gotten so many replies from the mock drafts that I keep doing it. I had Perezhogin in a draft pool with some of the guys that founded this site back when we were on the espn habs board. I had us getting Higgins over at HF (or Jim Slater or Patrick Thorensen yikes) When HF had their magazine, I did the Habs article, I had us picking Kostitsyn or Getzlaf (had to hand 2 choices) I still have my copy of the article, the only payment I got for writing it was a free copy. I had us getting Korpikoski or Graham or Kaspar but I also threw in Chipchura's name along with Mike Green as possible 1st round choices. You can read it here, http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=602 In '05 I had us getting Kopitar or Brule or Ryan or Pouliot but also said that if we trade down we could get Latendresse or Staal or Bourrett or McArdle(ouch). Never thought they would go for Price. You can read it here, http://www.habsworld.net/article.php?id=825 In '06 I had us getting Fischer or Summers or Giroux or Berglund. You can read it here, http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=13 I don't expect us to end up with any of the guys I suggest, I only put out some names of guys I think the Habs would be interested in and that might be on board at the time. This years mock I have Nick Bonnino in the 6th round, but it's highly unlikely that he falls that far, some team like boston might gamble on him in the 3rd round for all I know, but I got a look at ISS's draft guide and they have him way way down. As for Brett MacLean the head scout of ISS said he could see MacLean going much higher then people think, on a radio show he said he could go in the top 10 as teams love his finishing abilities and size but are concerned about his skating although it's not as bad as Latendresse's was in his draft year. Sutter I would think that the Flames will be all about picking him and I just can't see us picking him at 12th. petrecki and pacioretti, I've seen both but only once. Petrecki there's concern about his hockey sense, he didn't really stand out from what I saw. Pacioretty I like and could see the Habs being interested, really hard to figure where he will go in the draft, I could see him going in the 20's, the knock I've heard is his offensive upside.

It's a mock draft for the Habs, since they are the only team I follow, I just list some possible choices for each pick. As for going off the board, I know scouts from ISS and McKeens, I know the head scout of ISS and I was told from one scout certain players that the Habs are interested in according to Trevor Timmins.

http://www.habprospects.com/modules.php?na...icle&sid=62 Just some possible choices for each of our picks.

CJAD is reporting that the Habs have an offer on the table for Emelin and the terms have been worked out, he should give his answer in a day or two but it appears as though he will be signed very soon.